Starting Gift: Any will do; But Master key is recommended for ease of area travel right away.

Link to Dark Souls Calculator: Add link here.

Build Equipment

Important items of note

Zweihander: Will literally knock down lighter opponents, add a element, or magic weapon effect and it is nasty... but slow!

Dark wood Grain ring: You are playing a defensive character of sorts; rolling faster then normal Helps, very good for bosses when you cast, then dodge.

Dusk Crown Ring: Great vs bosses, or exploring. This boosts your spell count up a lot (more if you double slot spells)

Havel's ring: Good if you want heavier armour or using heavier weapons.

Light Armour sets: Do not underestimate these armours; Antiquated, Black, Ninja, Red and others have benefits for a speedy character! Some are as good, if not better then heavy!

Drake Sword: Honestly... This will carry you though a lot of the game. It is a 'Noob' sword, but the shock-wave attack is very hand vs some bosses, great as a back stabbing weapon on Havel, and a handy side arm for magic mains. Just don't rely on it forever because you will suffer for it.

Katanas: Low durability for the cost of speed. This is a dex high class so these are handy weapons to have.

Silver Knight Straight Sword: Underestimated? YES! (1.04) it will be enchantable, it requires 22 dex and 16 str, is fast, medium range, and deadly as most Dex weapons. Not the most powerful; but you can make them suffer for underestimating it!

Bows: This is a Dex high build. So a bow is very handy; though with modding you might drop this in favour for Throwing knives; but this is still a useful drawing tool; or attention grabber!

Bloodshield: How can you not like a shield that boosts resistances? lower stability but handy none the less!

Painting Guardian Sword: This is the upgraded thief's dagger; try it out then slap on their own outfit for a fun time.

Quelaag's Furysword: On par with the Silver Knight sword; but with humanity and slightly better base damage; but unable to be enchanted. It does have a killer back-flip move you can deal out NPC fury with, if you catch my drift.

Build Strategy

Spells

Now this depends on how you make the build, but the main idea is to use spells that boost your weapons damage. You can supplement this with Buffs and ranged damage spells. Both Magic and Miracles have the ability to use this build but Magic has an advantage of spells like repair, fall damage reduction, Crystal Magic weapon not needing a covenant unlike dark moon blade or sunlight blade. Miracles can heal though, so Estus is used less often.

Covenants

To be honest there is no good covenant for this class; so pick the one you like most, or swap them as needed to gain more items!

Stats

Alright I've told you the tools; now the stats? This is variable to how you want to make your build but i'll give you a basic rundown.

Stat

Mine at 31

EST/Max

Vitality

10

Note 1

Attunement

14

14, 16, or 19

Endurance

10

Note 1

Strength

16

16 24 or 40 *Note2

Dexterity

22

18 22 or 40 *Note2

Resistance

12

BASE

Intelligence

22

Base-32+ *Note3

Faith

8

Base-30/40/50 *Note3

*Will add as I take my class further in 1) Endurance and vitality will vary as you go. I honestly rarely touch them as I hardly ever get hit; that and proper armour reduces damage a lot. See fit to alter them to fit your needs as you go, this will help you more that way then any other. 2) Pick either Strength or Dexterity. If you take this build the way I went Dexterity is a primary and should see iteself go from base, to 22 (silver knight sword) to 40 at max for best stat bonus. If not choose strength and go from 16 to 24 (can use most 2 hand weapons one handed. This is also max cap on dex build) to 40 for best stat bonus. 3)Now here is the trick to this mage. You do NOT have to pick magic! Why? Both Miracles and Magic have benefits to this class. Magic has Crystal Magic weapon which is very powerful bonus on top of what your weapon already is; as well as many ranged magic attacks and very helpful buffs and saving spells. Miracles have healing, force push, and their own ranged attacks (Sunlight Spear set), and have two weapon boosting skills (Sunlight blade, and Dark moon Blade). Both sets can have pyromancy as a backup damage that helps adapt to the world around you.

I hope this build helps you guys out; as a good idea of what it can do, I am helping co-op Quelaag. i'm doing around 359 per Great Heavy Soul Arrow; And Quelaag Keeps coming after me because I'm doing the most damage of all the people I'm helping. I've also Three Shot Taurus Demon early on, and have not died once to a Dark Knight.